9 acre market garden

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In this model, 7 acres of a 9 acre site are used to produce field vegetables and 1250m2 are used for polytunnel crop production and seedling propagation. The extra 1.75 acres are used for hardstanding, packing shed and compost production. The farm has all the equipment it needs and produces its own seedlings and much of its own fertility through green manures, minimising input costs. It supplies a weekly Community Supported Agriculture scheme vegetable box to 150 households all year round. This means produce is sold for less than the retail prices that could be achieved in a farm shop or market stall, but the vegetable boxes take a high volume of produce and give the farm a stable and predictable income.The 1000m2 of polytunnel space produces around £17,000 of vegetables per year and the 7 acres of field vegetable production, with 25% under  green manure at any one time, are worth around £86,000. This creates a total turnover of £103,000. In this kind of model you would expect to spend at least 60-70% of the income on labour, including the farmers’ own drawings, and so the farm would create a significant amount of employment.Approximately 20-30% of the turnover is fixed costs, leaving an average of 10% as surplus, although this would take a number of years to achieve and can rapidly disappear or run to a loss in a year of bad weather.